Page:The portrait of Mr. W. H (IA portraitofmrwh01wild).pdf/110

 one loathes, and Shame, with its ashen face and secret smile. He is enthralled by this dark woman, is for a season separated from his friend, and becomes the “vassal-wretch” of one whom he knows to be evil and perverse and unworthy of his love, as of the love of Willie Hughes. “O, from what power,” he says,—

“hast thou this powerful might, With insufficiency my heart to sway? To make me give the lie to my true sight, And swear that brightness does not grace the day? Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill, That in the very refuse of thy deeds There is such strength and warrantise of skill That, in my mind, thy worst all best exceeds?”

He is keenly conscious of his own degradation, and finally, realising that his genius is nothing to her compared to the physical beauty of the young actor, he cuts with a quick knife the bond that binds him to her, and in this bitter sonnet bids her farewell:—

“In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn, But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing;